The Indian football team, under coach Syed Nayemuddin, continued its upward surge in the FIFA rankings, climbing up to 118th place in the latest list.

This represents an impressive jump of nine places over the place India occupied in the December rankings. This is the second biggest improvement in the January rankings after neighbours Bangladesh, who climbed no fewer than 17 spots to 143.

India, who claimed the South Asian Football Federation Cup last month to regain regional supremacy, had climbed to 127th place from 135th in December as a result of the title success.

Nayeemuddin's side has leapfrogged teams like New Zealand [Images], Malta, Malaysia, Vietnam, Liechtenstein, El Salvador, Andorra, Lebanon and Cape Verde Islands to get to its present position.

India is only slightly behind Hong Kong, Turkmenistan and Barbados on ranking points.

The Maldives is the next highest South Asian team at 133. Sri Lanka [Images] and Pakistan are ranked 145th and 158th respectively.

Brazil [Images] continue to head the overall rankings, ahead of the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

Among the top ten teams, the United States gained a spot, up to seventh position, which it shares with neighbours Mexico, who dropped two places.

Japan [Images] is the top Asian team at 15th position, ahead of Iran at 19 and South Korea at 29.

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